Lushhomemedia

HDB commissions market survey to decide fate of struggling wholesale centre

THE fate of the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre hangs in the balance. With more businesses importing directly from overseas suppliers, the 15ha site faces the threat of being bypassed as a wholesale centre, according to an HDB tender document on the government business website.

The HDB has called for a major study on the wholesale centre’s future viability. It is owned and managed by HDB through an agent and has 1,405 units comprising stalls, shops, cold rooms and offices. According to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), some 30 per cent of fruit importers and 60 per cent of vegetable importers have their warehouses, cold stores and distribution sites there.

At the wholesale centre yesterday, sellers told the same story: Their sales have been on the decline since the Sars outbreak in 2003 when the market was shut for two weeks after some sellers fell sick.

Some walk-in customers stayed away and never returned, while some businesses found alternative sources by liaising directly with suppliers, said sellers. Most who spoke to The Straits Times said sales had dropped by half since then.

Madam Tan Ai Keow, 55, who has been selling vegetables at the market since it opened in 1983, said: ‘Times are bad. The market has no business.’

Sellers said one major issue is that businesses are being directly supplied from Malaysia. Trucks carrying goods go through Customs and deliver directly to businesses.

The AVA, which uses the wholesale centre as an inspection point to take samples to check for pesticide residues and contaminants, said not all goods are required to report to the centre, only randomly targeted vegetables and fruits for the day.

Mr Raymond Tan, owner of MCP Supermarket which has six outlets in Singapore, used to buy all of his produce from the wholesale centre when he established the chain in 1999.

Now, he buys only 30 per cent there. He imports 70 per cent directly from Malaysia.

According to the tender document, the appointed consultant would be given three months to study the overall wholesale industries in vegetables, fruits and dried goods, and in relation to the operations of the Pasir Panjang centre.

It will give recommendations on whether and how the wholesale centre can ‘continue to remain relevant and viable in future’.

However, many sellers said if the wholesale centre closes or relocates, they will wind up their businesses. One vegetable seller, who wanted to be known only as Madam Chia, 60, said: ‘We’re old; we won’t carry on if it’s gone…It’s very hard to sustain the business.’

Source : Straits Times – 12 Dec 2008